Finer wool prices are the best they’ve been in a few years

Wool price gains should continue in coming weeks, market experts say.

Wool price gains during the past few weeks have been described as “exceptional”. Picture: Andy Rogers

The wool market is expected to continue its run of price gains this week.

Despite a large offering last week, prices lifted from 25c/kg to 100c/kg across all categories.

The Eastern Market Indicator jumped 55c/kg to close the week at 1488c/kg — this is a rise of more than 100c/kg in the past fortnight. It’s also 309c/kg higher than the same time last year and 139c/kg higher than the 10-year average.

Some of the best price gains were for Merino wool 18 microns and finer, with the southern regional indicator for 16.5 micron wool rising 129c/kg to 2792c/kg and the 18 micron indicator up 101c/kg to 2184c/kg.

Australian Wool Network’s state manager for Victoria Kelvin Shelley said the price gains of the past few weeks were “exceptional”.

“It’s still China dominant, but the last three weeks we have seen the European market reopen to a certain degree. They (European market) may have left it a little late to purchase, due to Covid-19, but they are buying out to 19 micron range, which we don’t see a lot of,” Mr Shelley said.

He said there were some new customers in Japan, some business being done in India and South Korea for cardings, which was adding to the positive shift.

“Things have improved in a lot of countries with Covid, from where we were this time last year and the Europeans coming back in to purchase has helped drive up the prices. Retail sales have also been good.”

Mr Shelley said the prices for the finer microns were “really positive” and hadn’t been on offer for a few years.

There are 34,600 bales on offer this week.

“Prices should remain positive this week, with some good business done over the weekend.”

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